Police Fatally Shoot Man in East Garfield Park Apartment

By DNAinfo Staff on March 14, 2013 6:15am | Updated on March 14, 2013 9:23am

EAST GARFIELD PARK — Police killed a 58-year-old man who officers said pointed a gun at them early Thursday morning.

The man was identified as John Harris, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office.

Police said they were called to an apartment in the 200 block of North Homan Avenue about 2:15 a.m. for a domestic incident involving a man with a gun.

When they arrived, a woman let them inside and Harris emerged from a room with a gun that he pointed at officers, police said.

The officers opened fire, killing Harris, who was pronounced dead about 2:45 a.m., authorities said.

While a statement from the police department said the gun was an "automatic assault weapon," Fraternal Order of Police SpokesmanPat Camden, who said he visited the scene, was told it could have been a semi-automatic pistol.

The assault weapon and another weapon were recovered from the scene, according to the department's statement.

No officers were harmed in the incident, police said.

Prior to being let in, police may have been waved off by another woman — possibly his girlfriend, neighbors said — who said everything was all right at the scene, Camden said.